Around the NFL: Finding their football future

Friday

Mar 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMMar 28, 2008 at 12:46 PM

The kid has it all, almost. But something is missing. After he stars in college, what’s missing is what’s left in his football future. Usually, he never finds it. The scenario came to mind the other day when I heard Omar Jacobs is the quarterback of the Florence Phantoms, members of a minor indoor football league with hard floors and small paychecks.

Steve Doerschuk

He dreams the American dream. He nearly touches it. He’s the hotshot kid whose dad thinks he’s buying Cheerios for a 9-year-old Joe Montana. He lights up his peewee league. He struts into junior high amid adult whispers at the school.

In high school, he is a star. Everybody tells him how good he is. The people who make their livings high on the gridiron business ladder take a colder view.

The kid has it all, almost. But something is missing. After he stars in college, what’s missing is what’s left in his football future. Usually, he never finds it.

The scenario came to mind the other day when I heard Omar Jacobs is the quarterback of the Florence Phantoms, members of a minor indoor football league with hard floors and small paychecks.

I thought back to a college game I attended with my sons in 2005. Bowling Green came to Kent State with a quarterback who was supposed to be all that. It was Omar Jacobs. A year earlier, he passed for 4,002 yards. He had the best touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio in NCAA Division I-A history, based on 41 TDs and seven picks.

We were disappointed that Jacobs didn’t play. He was hurt. In retrospect, he hurt himself by entering the 2006 draft early. Yet, he was viewed as a super sleeper.

One of the draft Web sites, Football’s Future, gushed: “He will need some coaching in the NFL to fix his mechanics, but other than that, he has everything needed to be a star at the next level.”

“Other than that” kicked in.

The Steelers drafted him in Round 5, but they were unimpressed to the extent they risked losing him the way Baltimore lost Derek Anderson to Cleveland. That is, they cut him in the preseason. When no one claimed Jacobs off waivers, the Steelers signed him to the practice squad.

That gig didn’t last. The Steelers cut him for good. The Eagles gave him a practice squad job for less than two months before they let him go. The Chiefs gave him a look, but injuries became a factor that led to his release Sept. 2.

The dream flickered Saturday night, when Jacobs was to start against the Canton Legends in the Florence (S.C.) Civic Center. In his previous game, he attempted 36 passes, 22 falling incomplete.

As the 2008 draft approaches, Jacobs serves to remind how much stock one should put in analytical hyperbole.

Omar and Co.

An update of Jacobs and his fellow quarterbacks drafted in 2006 illustrates why a team such as Cleveland is reluctant to elevate second-year pro Brady Quinn over a somewhat proven Derek Anderson.

Vince Young, the No. 3 overall pick, wound up in the ’07 playoffs but led the Titans to an average of just 12.4 points in five of the eight games played in the second half of the season. Matt Leinart (No. 10 overall, Cardinals) regressed from his rookie year, posting a weak 61.9 passer rating in five games before landing on injured reserve. Jay Cutler (No. 11 overall, Broncos) lost four of his last six starts. Denver drafted Cutler thinking Super Bowl but instead posted its worst record since 1999.

Kellen Clemens (No. 49 overall, Jets) failed to impress New Yorkers as Roger Clemens in his prime with a 60.9 passer rating in 10 appearances (five TDs, 10 interceptions). Tarvaris Jackson (No. 64 overall, Vikings) actually was the winning QB in a 41-17 decision over Eli Manning and the Giants. The consensus, though, has it that Minnesota won’t get as far as Manning did without upgrading at QB.

Charlie Whitehurst (No. 81 overall, Chargers) is in for a long sit behind Philip Rivers. Brodie Croyle (No. 85 overall, Chiefs) looks a bit like another former Alabama QB, Joe Namath, in the face, but there ends the resemblance. He was 0-6 as an ’07 starter. Ingle Martin (No. 148, Packers) got cut four months after he got drafted. His full name, Harry Ingle Martin IV, does not appear destined to become a household one.

Omar Jacobs was the next QB drafted. He feels Martin’s pain.

OSU vs. LSU

The way the draft is shaking out, neither contestant in this year’s national title game lost more than can be replaced.